West Virginia Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2019
By Phil Poling
The James Madison Dukes travel to Morgantown, W. Va. for each team’s 2019 season-opener. The Dukes finished 9-4 a season ago, but were just 4-3 on the road. The Mountaineers shouldn’t expect to roll over their first opponent, though, as the Dukes are familiar battling with Power Five schools; they opened last season at N.C. State.
However, WVU football hasn’t lost a season-opener to a non-Power Five school since 1999 when they fell to East Carolina.
Regardless of who starts at quarterback for Brown and the Mountaineers, the rest of the team should be able to will the team to victory. There are different levels of football for a reason, and West Virginia is in the upper-most echelon.
You’ll see a steady dose of Brown, McKoy and Pettaway on the ground in the season-opener as Brown eases either Jack Allison or Austin Kendall into things. This doesn’t mean it’ll be handoff after handoff after handoff, but expect the ‘Eers to set the tone and rely heavily on their ground attack.
With this type of strategy, Brown will secure his first win as WVU football’s head coach. It might not be pretty — and it’ll be wholly different from the Geno Smith/Grier-era of quarterbacking — but all that matters is finishing the day 1-0.
Prediction: JMU 13, West Virginia 30 (1-0)